The Mech Touch

The more Ves spoke to Mayer, the more he gained a favorable impression of the senior student.

Mayer Torto not only performed well in school, but also expressed a lot of passion for mech design. The student did not engage in a lot of extracurricular activities. Aside from going on a couple of field trips and participating in some of the university's festivals as a contestant in design competitions, the young man spent most of his time deepening his understanding for mechs.

From what Ves could tell of Mayer's excellent grades in design-oriented courses, the applicant possessed a considerable affinity for mechs!

Ves possessed a hidden advantage when it came to hiring. Unlike other people, his spiritual senses allowed him to ascertain whether the applicants possessed spiritual potential.

Each mech designer who possessed more than just a negligible amount of spirituality was a potential Journeyman!

While that didn't mean that they were guaranteed to advance, there was no doubt that their potential was higher. As long as they possessed a good work ethic and a passion for mech design, becoming a Journeyman was not ruled out!

However, hiring someone capable of breaking through the extraordinary threshold came with its own downsides.

If any of his subordinates made the lucky breakthrough and turned into a Journeyman, then their continued presence in the LMC came into doubt.

Lots of mech designers would opt to resign from a design team as soon as possible and start up their own company. As esteemed and competent Journeymen, there was virtually no chance for them to fail in finding a footing in the mech market!

Therefore, the decision to hire someone like Mayer Torto was not as simple as it seemed. Ves would have to take into account that some of the members of his design team might go once they gained what they wanted by working at the LMC.

Ves accepted this possibility. Keeping mech designers bound to the LMC was not a good idea. They came into touch with sensitive internal data about ongoing design projects and could easily employ numerous means to sabotage a mech design.

While he intended to do the best he could to indoctrinate his subordinates into remaining loyal to him, he still had to leave a door open in order to come across as a magnanimous employer.

As long as his subordinates wanted to leave, they were allowed to do so as long as they abided by the terms of their contracts.

To Ves, it wasn't such a bad idea to release a subordinate mech designer into the wild every now and then. Since he intended to guide and babysit their progression to an extent, he could be considered their mentors.

The bond between a mentor and a protege always endured. Even as the proteges went on to start their own companies, they always retained ties to their mentor.

This was the beginnings of an extended mech designer network. Ever since he became exposed to how Master Olson developed a considerable network of current and former disciples that extended her reach and performed assignments on her behalf, Ves wanted to imitate her and develop his own circle of mech designers!

Therefore, someone like Mayer Torto brought a lot of value to the table.

In his Novice and Apprentice stages, he could serve as a bright and clever mech designer who could assist Ves in his design projects.

If he ever managed to advance to Journeyman, either with or without assistance from Ves, Mayer would still be an asset to the LMC even if he decided to separate with the company.

The close and friendly ties between their companies benefited both sides! It was in the best interest for Ves and his former subordinates to maintain their existing ties!

For these reasons, Ves adopted a considerably more welcoming attitude to Mayer. Someone who possessed spiritual potential deserved special treatment!

\"You won't regret working for the LMC.\" He smiled in a good-natured manner. \"As long as your performance at my company matches your performance at Rawlings, I'm sure you'll become ready to take on greater responsibilities soon enough. The better you become at your job, the more you will be able to influence our design projects. This will provide you with much more practical experience which can assist you in designing your own mechs.\"

Mayer's interest piqued at that. \"I heard that you'd allow us to publish our own mech designs if we develop some. What accommodations do you offer?\"

\"If your design meets the standards of the LMC, then I'm willing to allow you to publish your mech design under our main brand.\"

\"I take it that it won't be easy to meet those standards.\" Mayer astutely remarked as he spotted the trap in those words!

Ves maintained his smile. \"That is true. The LMC generally distinguishes itself with the quality of its products. If your mech design is too crude to match the expectations of our brand, then you have two options. First, you can allow me to make a pass on your design and address the shortcomings of your work.\"

\"You'll do this for free?\"

\"Not exactly. In keeping with the conventions of our industry, the bulk of the ownership of your design will fall into my hands. You will still earn some credit, but only as a contributing mech designer.\"

This alternative did not sound very appealing to someone like Mayer. This was essentially letting others reap most of the benefits of his hard work!

Ves already experienced the other end of this kind of deal with Professor Ventag. While it didn't sound fair, a low-ranking mech designer did not have a lot of right to speak. This was the best deal they could get under the circumstances!

\"What if I insist on maintaining possession of my mech design?\"

\"Then the LMC will allow you to publish it under an alternative, lower-cost brand. Right now, this brand is still in the works, but we'll roll it out as soon as soon as we produce the first mechs designed by my subordinates. While your mech designs won't be able to piggyback from our main brand, you will still have an opportunity to see your mechs being put to their intended use.\"

As a mech designer himself, Ves knew that the advancement of a mech designer was highly dependent on the influence they exerted through their products. If Mayer was forced to shelve his completed mech designs in a forgotten archive, then he would hardly be able to progress!

Not a lot of employers offered this option to their subordinates in the first place. Ves believed it was not due to a deliberate effort to sabotage the progression of their lackeys, but rather because it was a pain in the butt to divert precious production capacity to the fabrication of unworthy and inferior mechs.

To be honest, Ves held some of the same concerns. However, if it secured him the loyalty and devotion of a talent with a good chance of becoming a Journeyman like Mayer, then Ves did not mind producing the mechs at a net loss!

\"This option sounds fair.\" The Rawlings student nodded in satisfaction. \"I have a few more questions, sir.\"

\"Ask away. I am at your disposal.\"

After entertaining numerous questions and asking some of his own, Ves felt that he had been clicking more and more with Mayer. He was very impressed with what he saw and could easily imagine the Rawlings student as a pivotal part of his design team.

\"It says here that you are trying to develop a specialty towards.. command, communication and control systems, is that correct?\" He asked as he went over the portion of Mayer's record that described his potential design philosophy.

\"That is still correct. I'm not so much interested in the performance of a single mech than seeing how they perform alongside other mechs. Most mech combat that takes place in the galaxy does not consist of duels where one mech fights another mech at a time.\"

Ves was impressed with what he heard. Mayer had a good point!

\"That's true. Outside from mech games and the mech dueling circuits, mechs are always deployed in numbers ranging from twelve-mech squads to ten-thousand-mech divisions at a time.\"

\"This is exactly why I want to develop a specialty related to increasing the coordination between mechs. While I'm not entirely settled on the design philosophy I wish to form, it will definitely fall under the field of communications.\"

\"That's an odd field to specialize in considering your interests. Most communication specialists delve into expanding the capabilities of signals and jamming technology.\"

\"I'm not looking to strengthen the raw parameters of my mechs. Instead, I want to develop their existing utilization to a higher level.\"

The goal that Mayer tried to achieve sounded similar to the approach that Ves adopted for his design philosophy. Both tried to improve mechs by augmenting their utilization rather than raising their performance!

As Ves learned all he wanted out of the interview, he decided to make an offer to Mayer.

\"Are you willing to sign a preliminary employment contract to work for the LMC as a member of one of our design teams?\"

\"I am.\" Mayer responded. His intention hadn't wavered after becoming more familiar with Ves and the LMC! \"I would love to receive the opportunity to work for your company!\"

\"That's great!\" Ves gestured towards Gavin. \"My assistant here is ready to prepare a suitable preliminary employment contract for you. You can hash out the details of your commitment among yourselves.\"

Gavin took Mayer to a spare office to draw up and go over the contract.

Different from a regular employment contract, the preliminary version was merely a written promise to work for a company in the future.

Mech companies and many other businesses employed these kinds of contracts in order to 'reserve' promising candidates while still in school.

As long as someone like Mayer signed this contract, they were essentially taken off the job market. No other company was allowed to hire them except in special cases, such as the military wishing to draft an already-committed mech designer.

However, the chances of that happening was low in the Sentinel Kingdom. As long as a noble house didn't come and throw around their weight, Ves could expect to add Mayer to his company as soon as he graduated from Rawlings and traveled to the Bright Republic.

Of course, if either side wanted to break the contract, then they had to pay the requisite penalties to each other.

If Ves didn't want Mayer to work for the LMC, then he would have to pay a very hefty amount of money to the Sentinel.

If Mayer no longer wished to work for LMC, then the consequences were a bit more complex. Instead of paying a monetary penalty directly, his next employer was obliged to pay the penalty in his stead!

This was because Mayer's alternative choice essentially poached him from the LMC!

Normally, the price of poaching wasn't too serious. The sums ranged from a few hundred-thousand bright credits to hundreds of millions bright credits!

The upper range could reach ridiculous figures if the future employee in question was a prodigy or high performer!

In the case of Mayer who possessed spiritual potential, Ves was very loath to let this promising seed go! He already sent a silent message to Gavin to insert an incredibly high penalty fee in case Mayer changed his mind and wanted to work for someone else.

To Ves, the value of a potential Journeyman subordinate easily surpassed the current net worth of the LMC!

He trusted that Gavin would find some way to add these terms into the preliminary employment contract in exchange for conceding on other points.

\"Okay, next!\"

Ves still had to go through a number of other prospective mech design students before he was finished for the day. Hopefully, he could add some other commitments to the list by the time he was done for the day.